Dewdney (Post Office & Station) adopted 12 December 1939 on 92G/1, as labelled on BC map 2B, 1914, and as identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer. Form of name changed to Dewdney (community) 15 December 1982 on 92 G/1.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

"Named after Lieutenant Governor E. Dewdney." (Gosnell Yeal Book, 1897) ....after Hon. Edgar Dewdney (1835-1916), Minister for the Interior, Canada, 1882-92." (18th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 1924) ....lieutenant-governor of British Columbia, 1892-97, in charge of surveys for the site of New Westminster, and other engineering works. See Dewdney Trail for additional biographical information; also Victoria Colonist, 5-6 June 1983.

Source: included with note

"Hon. Edgar Dewdney, CE, PC; was born in Devonshire, England, 1835; came to British Columbia 1859; married Jane Shaw 28 March 1864; appointed Lieutenant-Governor 2 November 1892, and served for some six years; died 1916.

Source: Nelson, Denys; Place Names of the Delta of the Fraser River; 1927, unpublished manuscript held in the Provincial Archives

....arrived in BC in 1859 and the next year, with Walter Moberly, built the famous Dewdney Trail from Fort Hope to Rock Creek (later continued to Wild Horse Creek). He served both as a member of the Legislative Council and as a Member of Parliament. In 1881 Dewdney was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Territories, serving through the Riel Rebellion. He was federal Minister of the Interior 1888-1892, and Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, 1892-1897....

Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; 1001 British Columbia Place Names; Discovery Press, Vancouver 1969, 1970, 1973.

"...At Kanaka Prairie, the modern Dewdney, and back of it on Burton's (now Hatzic) Prairie, there was also considerable settlement, some of it dating from before Confederation... the Cariboo teamsters, Deroche and MacDonald on Nicomen Island, Johnson and McKamey at Kanaka Prairie, and Burton and Phair on Burton's Prairie..." (John Edgar Gibbard, "Early history of the Fraser valley 1808-1885," UBC thesis, 1937, p.261-265). "There seems to be no [other] record of the Dewdney area being known as Kanaka Prairie...." (Provincial Archives' Place Names File, compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions)

Source: included with note

"Dewdney was originally called Johnson's Landing, presumably after Norman Clarke Johnson. Johnson's Landing first appears in the Official Postal Guide in July 1884, with Robert C. Garner postmaster. The Official Postal Guide in January 1892 lists two post offices name changes to Dewdney: Johnson's Landing in British Columbia, and O'kotoks [sic] in Alberta. At the time Edgar Dewdney was Minister of the Interior. The name changes may be due to Dominion Land Surveyors working in the area, or simply to honour Dewdney for his previous career."

Source: Provincial Archives' Place Names File (the "Harvey File") compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions